Opposition lawmakers walked out of the Indian parliament's lower house on Tuesday demanding the finance minister's resignation after his wife represented the tax department in a court case.
The opposition Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) alleged Finance Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram favoured his wife, a lawyer, to represent the income tax department before the High Court in Chennai, once known as Madras.
"We want finance minister to resign," said Vijay Kumar Malhotra, deputy leader of the lower house. Chidambaram said there was no effort to favour his wife and the tax department had independently appointed her as their lawyer.
"Let me make it clear ... that had the matter been brought to my notice at any time earlier, I would have ensured that the proposal to engage Mrs Nalini Chidambaram was nipped in the bud and not processed any further," he told lawmakers.
The finance minister is also a lawyer and had represented the income tax department before he took up his post in 2004.
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